


Aegis Flight

by guyi (yujael)



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Dragons, F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-14
Updated: 2014-03-14
Packaged: 2018-01-15 18:14:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1314394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yujael/pseuds/guyi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Petty disputes and misunderstandings have carved Aelis into a world with unmistakable borders and relations as bright as mud between the elf, siren and dragon-born. Jack, an elf-born, only catches glimpses of dragons and whispers of the sirens' powers until his family is at risk of homelessness and he decides to turn to the dragon-born for help. </p><p>“Find the most valuable thing you can and bring it back to us within seventeen days,” they tell him, “and we will trade a treasure with equal value for your efforts.”</p><p>It seems like a raw deal to him at first, but when he agrees to work in a nobleman's manor for a few days in an act of desperation, he ends up finding something more valuable to the dragons than a gold goblet or a jewel...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aegis Flight

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally going to be straight up joelay, but then Jack became the main character.
> 
> And it is also my first time writing from Jack's point of view, so any comments would be appreciated. Seriously.

_If you seek asylum, walk forward._

_If you seek aid, try your case._

 

The words on the sign would probably make no sense whatsoever anywhere else but here; however, they're perfectly clear to Jack. He reads it over a couple more times and then surveys the low stone wall behind it. It stretches on far out of sight on either side, unbroken except for the places like this one, places where a road was allowed so that travelers could pass through after reading a sign just like this one.

The only border clearer than this one, Jack thinks, is the one around the Sovereign. There aren't any armed guards here, though. Only a worn sign with what might look like old blood smeared across it to the average traveler, but is obviously paint to someone skilled in the crafts and carpentry trades as Jack is.

He expected this. The dragon-born don't need armed guards for their territories. They've established their rules pretty clearly in the last couple years, this sign alone is proof of that. Speaking of which...

Jack sighs. It tells him to turn back if he values his time, and possibly his life, but he doesn't have much of a choice at this point. The dragons don't think highly of any elf-born and won't think any better of him, but he's going to walk forward anyway because he has a little more than his life to lose. Just a little.

Just his family's home and their well-being, and maybe a life if things get worse while he's gone.

“You don't have to go out there,” Caiti had told him. “Your mother's taught me enough, I can pick up some of her small jobs.”

“On top of managing your commissions?” Jack had been skeptical. He'd already gotten ready to go and decided to leave as soon as he'd finished his latest contract. “It won't be enough to cover everything for long, and any more than that is too much for one person. I can be back before we really run out. Don't forget we still have things we can sell.”

“And if you're not back? There's a lot that can go wrong here. You know that, right?”

“But it's still a chance. We're just losing right now, but I can bring back enough to keep us here until we're all working again. It's a long shot, but they've helped people before. I'll work on the way there and back, too. It'll help.”

“It won't help if they char you to nothing,” was Caiti's last warning.

“They don't have any reason to hate me. Me specifically, I mean. I can work something out with them. It'll be fine.”

She hadn't stopped worrying after that, even though she had the same hope that the rumours they'd heard were true. She'd only hidden it better, and before he left she'd informed him that she was still taking on one of his mother's small jobs. Anything to ensure that their family could stay off the streets and keep as far away from the infamous “loan men”, who seemed to control several other poor families in their town.

Now, four days later, he's standing right next to the border. One step will bring him out of Brising and into one of the unnamed territories of the dragons. Or, if it does have a name, it isn't one that the dragons have seen fit to share with the rest of the world, let alone any elf. Jack sighs again and steels himself.

_If you seek asylum, walk forward._

_If you seek aid, try your case._

He walks forward.

\--

His trek on the other side of the border begins with low hills. Then rocks begin rising out of the ground, growing larger the farther goes until they're even taller than him. The sun beats down on his head relentlessly, so the shade they provide along with the small groups of trees is welcome. Then there is a wide, slow river, and on the other side of it, a jagged line of mountains looms.

It's the Aumur Range, the home of the closest clan of dragon-born to Jack's home. He can see spots of movement when he looks at the peaks, the silhouettes of large wings and scaled bodies flying high above. None of them stray very far from the mountains, but he knows they've seen him. He's never seen a dragon up close, not even in their human forms, but he'd be fucking stupid to think that they wouldn't be watching an elf approaching from miles away. He'd be a complete and utter idiot.

A lump appears in his throat at the thought of seeing a dragon, speaking to one. He swallows it. He's come this far on rumours, he can go a little more. He's going to cross this river, climb that mountain, and – hopefully – he's going to come back with something to help his family. Even if all he can manage to get is a piece of gold the size of his littlest finger nail.

With fresh determination, Jack finds the shallowest part of the river, crosses it, and begins his climb less than an hour later. The dragons get closer, the sounds of their wings louder and the flashes of their colourful scales brighter. He tries to make it look like he isn't scared shitless whenever he thinks one is close enough to see his face.

Just ask for a jewel, he tells himself. Then do whatever they want you to do in return. That's how the stories go, at least, and he hopes there's some truth in them. Try your case, the sign said. That matches up, doesn't it? Yeah. Why would they write that otherwise?

When he reaches the opening of a great cave less than half way up the mountain, he still isn't sure what the answer is.

\--

The cave opens up on one side of a small, flat plane on the mountainside. Between it and the ledge that Jack climbs up is a lone archway, beautifully carved out of stone and painted, though the colours are wearing. It's a nice piece of work, regardless, and Jack can't help but notice it before anything else. Even before the dragons.

And there are dragons. A few are still flying above, but most seem to have landed to meet him here. There are more than a dozen scattered behind the archway and in the entrance of the cave. They all have the same strange glow in their eyes, like embers, and they all have a pair of horns on their heads, some pointed, some rounded, and some straight, some curled. Jack can also see scales on the backs of their necks, appearing from underneath their shirts.

Yep. They're definitely dragons.

A man with droopy blue eyes and curved, pointy horns steps forward and stands directly under the arch. Jack squares his shoulders.

“You're no siren-born,” the dragon says tonelessly.

“No.” Jack resists the impulse to run the back of his neck out of embarrassment. Or maybe nerves. “I'm not. I'm a – er, my name is Jack.”

“I'm Geoff,” the dragon crosses his tattooed arms and gives Jack a wary look. “Now, you don't look like any ambassador I've ever seen, and unless you jumped over the wall like a fucking idiot, you saw one of the signs. So, why are you all the way up here?”

Jack hesitates long enough to count the number of people he stands in front of. Fourteen. Most are hanging back in the cave, but it's still a doozy. “I need help.”

Geoff chuckles humorlessly and the others express similar attitudes. “Really now? And why would you come to _us_?”

Jack would be bothered if he hadn't already seen that coming. “Because my family has a problem to solve and coming to you was one of the only options I could come up with without getting into deep trouble.”

Geoff's still distinctly unimpressed, but he gestures for Jack to continue.

Jack takes a deep breath and explains how his mother got injured and couldn't work, which cut off one of his family's major incomes, and now his family is sinking further into debt under the costs of keeping their home together and the medicals supplies they need. He goes over the options they had – sell everything, lose the house, lose a life... Or come to the mountains.

“Okay, I'm going to stop you before you get into how desperate you are,” Geoff sighs. “I think I can finish the story – you're fucking desperate, you don't want to be on the streets and you don't want to go near those loan men, or whatever you call them. We've heard that one before.”

“What – you think I'm lying?” Jack blinks, even though that does absolutely nothing for him.

Geoff shrugs. “I don't have proof to tell me whether you actually are or not. But you know what, elf? I'm going to tell you the same thing I told the guy before you.”

“You're sending him on that stupid quest, aren't you?”

The new voice belongs to a man who steps out from behind a thin, scruffy dragon. He's a short man with curly brown hair and freckles, and when he stands just behind the arch and looks at Jack with a distrustful expression, Jack realizes that the newcomer isn't a dragon. He has no horns and his eyes are a normal brown behind his glasses. What he does have, however, are sets of what resemble translucent leaves or petals behind his ears. Red, pointed, glowing, and attention grabbing – and Jack's never seen them before, either, but he knows what they mean.

“The last guy actually managed to come back in time,” Geoff says. “Brought back a nice looking plate, too.”

The siren rolls his eyes, but doesn't say anything else about the quest he'd asked about. Apparently he only wanted to make his presence known to Jack, if his expression is anything to go by.

“All right, elf, back to what I was saying.” Geoff's stare is unyielding. “You need money and somewhere under our feet is one hell of a hoard. You're not the first one to come looking for our treasure – and notice I said _our._ I'm not going to just give it to you.”

Jack nods, fighting to keep his tone level in front of the siren-born. “I was aware of that.”

“Good. I don't like you and I'm not going to pretend that I do, but I'm also not going to pretend to be a sadistic bastard.” Geoff pauses to curl the end of his moustache and gaze at the sky. “Your clan. How many?”

“Er, clan? Oh, six.”

“How's seventeen days sound to you, Michael?”

The siren shrugs. “Doesn't matter to me. Sounds fine.”

“Seventeen days for what?” Jack asks, his heart beating faster.

“Find the most valuable thing you can and bring it back here within seventeen days,” Geoff tells him, “and we will trade a treasure with equal value to your efforts.”

What?

Jack has to repeat it to himself a couple times before he can see that it isn't nearly as good as Geoff makes it sound. “You're giving me two weeks to do that? It took me nearly a week just to _get_ here.”

“Then I guess you'd better move fast.”

The second new voice belongs to a man who steps forward to stand next to the arch. He has glasses, too, over faintly glowing eyes. Poking up from his black hair is a set of straight, pointed horns. His expression is no different that any of his companions' at first glance, but when Jack looks again, he tenses. This dragon's face, while almost emotionless, has a much colder air about it.

He has reason to be wary of elves, and it goes beyond the fact that his kind stood against the elves two years ago. No. This one has one hell of a grudge, and Jack is almost relieved now to know that he's negotiating with Geoff and not anyone else, because unless he has straight up, physical proof otherwise, this dragon has a reason to hate Jack.

But Jack expected that, too.

“Just grab what you can,” the second dragon says nonchalantly, “tell us what you did on the way, and we'll let you have what you deserve. If you come back at all, that is. Not everybody does.”

“And that,” Geoff cuts in, “is what tells me when somebody is either really fucking determined, or really desperate.”

“You... don't give everyone the same amount of time, do you?” Jack asks cautiously.

“Not everybody gives me six people to factor in. Come on, now, do we have a deal? I'm not saying you have to cross the goddamn continent for a priceless artifact. Just, I don't know, cover yourself in mud and blood, fight a couple ghosts, and bring back a valuable ring. Make it good. This is your family on the line, after all.”

Jack closes his eyes. What the dragons and sirens think of him, their distrust, is unimportant right now. He has Caiti and his parents, his sister and nephew to look after. This is his chance. It'll be tough, but they have enough left to sell to get them through the month. Long enough for him to get back.

He opens his eyes to find Geoff in the middle of a yawn. When he meets Jack's eyes, he shifts his stance expectanly.

“Yeah,” Jack says. “I guess we have a deal.”

 


End file.
